Committee's Next Task: Building A Consensus

Reaching Accord On Upgrading The Region Can Be A `Painful' Process.

May 8, 2004|By Eve Modzelewski Stuart News

Stuart — Local leaders had no problem rattling off long-term goals for the Treasure Coast on Thursday and Friday: affordable housing, healthy natural resources, a diverse economy, growth that pays its way.

But many on the Committee for a Sustainable Treasure Coast recognized the tougher work will come in the 15 months ahead, when they will have to devise a plan for achieving those goals.

"Consensus-building is extremely painful," said Maggy Hurchalla, a former Martin County commissioner and former member of the Commission for a Sustainable South Florida, which Gov. Lawton Chiles formed in 1994.

The now-defunct commission's main accomplishment was developing the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

Hurchalla and other former South Florida commission members told the Treasure Coast committee Friday they shouldn't expect solutions to come easily.

"The only way major things ... can be accomplished in a region such as yours is if you all give up a little bit of your independence," said Richard Pettigrew, former chairman of the South Florida commission.

Transportation, education and the health of the Indian River Lagoon all are major issues for the Treasure Coast, Pettigrew said after the meeting at Indian River Community College's Chastain Campus.

Before their discussion with the South Florida commission members, some of the 37 Treasure Coast committee members spent hours refining their goals.

Throughout the discussion, they emphasized the need to hold developers responsible for the impact their projects have on schools, the environment, roads and other public resources.

As an increasing number of people move to Port St. Lucie, the St. Lucie County School District expects to need $500 million in the next 20 years to build 26 schools, Superintendent Michael Lannon said.

"It's just St. Lucie's time to lead because that's where people are coming first," Lannon said. "But they will come more to Martin and more to Indian River."

Martin County Commissioner Doug Smith suggested the committee map out where the area's important resources should go.

"Anybody could look at that document and understand what the long-term goal is," Smith said.